|
A network share on a Microsoft
network that is not visible when viewing another computer's shares;
however, it is still accessible if the name of the hidden share is known.
Default Microsoft Windows hidden shares
Examples of Microsoft Windows default hidden share
are:
ADMIN$ - The default systemroot or Windows
directory.
C$ and x$ - The default drive share, by default C$ is always enabled. x$
represents any other partitions or drives found by Windows that will
also be shared, e.g. D$, E$, etc.
FAX$ - Share used by fax clients to access cover pages
and other files on a file server.
IPC$ - See our
IPC definition for additional information about IPC.
PRINT$ - Share used by printers, enabling remote
administration on printers.
Creating a Microsoft Windows hidden
share
A Microsoft Windows hidden share is created by adding a
"$" symbol to the end of the name of the share. For
example, if you were sharing a folder named "hope", when
creating the shared name adding a "$" to the end of hope,
so the shared name is "hope$", will make a hidden share.
Accessing a Microsoft Windows hidden
share
Assuming we were attempting to access the "hope$"
share that we created in the above example from another computer
we would type the below network path to access the hidden share.
//<computer_name>/hope$
Viewing Microsoft Windows hidden shares
Hidden shares give the users a false impression that
the share cannot be found unless it is known. Although this may be
true for most users, a user can still obtain numerous programs
available on the Internet that enable a user to view all shares
regardless if they are hidden or not. If you are creating a hidden
share to protect sensitive data it is recommend you password protect
the share instead of making it hidden.
An easy method for users to display any hidden shares
on their computer is to use the net use
command.
- Additional information about mapping a network drive can be
found on document CH000472.
- See document CH000534
for information about viewing your network shares.
- Additional information about how to share a drive or folders in
Windows can be found on document CH000535.
- See document CH001054
for additional information about deleting and re-enabling deleted
Windows hidden shares.
Also see: Hidden files, Network
definitions
|
